The present invention relates to hot waxing apparatus, and in particular to an apparatus for hot waxing a ski such as downhill and cross-country snow skis.
The application of heated and melted wax, called hot wax, is theoretically far superior to cold wax in improving the performance of skis. Hot wax adheres to the skis better than the cold wax, and the melted wax can be more readily uniformly applied to the ski. However, in practice, the theoretical advantages of hot waxing have not been fully realized because existing apparatus used in hot waxing does not take advantage of applying the wax uniformly. Difficulty has been encountered in uniformly heating the wax to the appropriate temperature, i.e., a temperature which is sufficient to melt the wax but does not alter its chemical properties. Also, one of the essential features of hot waxing is to heat the bottom of the ski so that the pores therein are opened and receive the wax, and difficulty has been encountered in heating the bottoms of the skis to the proper temperature so that the pores open fully. If the bottoms of the skis are overheated, which often happens when an iron is used to heat the skis, internal bonds in the skis will be damaged and the skis may delaminate. Furthermore, apparatus presently available for hot waxing does not always uniformly apply the wax across the entire width of the ski and therefore does not achieve a continuous, smooth waxed surface. These problems all decrease the effectiveness of the hot waxing so that the theoretical advantages of hot waxing are not fully realized.